Gwinnett Co. publishing family records 2nd lottery win

Her husband, Robert McCray, former publisher of the Gwinnett Daily Post, won a $2.5 million prize in 2006.

Janet, major accounts manager for the newspaper, was at work when she learned of her win.

“I screamed in the phone and pulled it up on the Georgia Lottery website,” she said. “I had everyone come over and look. It disrupted everyone’s day.”

With their last prize, the McCrays paid bills, traveled and helped their family. Robert also bought a Dairy Queen and invested in StrawAds.

This time the family will use some of the prize on a previously scheduled trip to the NCAA basketball tournament.

“We’re getting ready to go to March Madness,” said Janet, who claimed her prize Feb. 4. “We’ll do that, and we’ll do some saving.”

The Georgia Lottery instant game $3,000,000 Taxes Paid is loaded with cash prizes up to $3 million after taxes. Players can submit non-winning tickets in the extra chance drawings for a chance to win $20,000 after taxes. Drawings are held on Wednesdays.

Since its first year, the Georgia Lottery Corp. has returned more than $12.3 billion to the state of Georgia for education. All Georgia Lottery profits go to pay for specific educational programs, including Georgia’s HOPE Scholarship Program and Georgia’s Pre-K Program. More than 1.3 million students have received HOPE, and more than 1.1 million 4-year-olds have attended the statewide, voluntary prekindergarten program.